A congressional lawsuit has revealed that staffers at the now-defunct Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, used artificial intelligence to review and cancel federal grants referencing queer topics. According to testimony reported by The New York Times, former DOGE officials Justin Fox and Nathan Cavanaugh said they used the AI tool ChatGPT while reviewing grants as part of an aggressive effort to reduce federal spending.
DOGE was created after President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025 and was led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. The department was also responsible for shuttering the United States Agency for International Development, widely known as USAID, the world’s largest provider of food assistance. The testimony became public through a lawsuit filed by the Modern Language Association, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the American Historical Association, which argue the government unlawfully terminated grants tied to research on race, gender, and LGBTQ+ communities.
Fox told investigators he used a prompt asking ChatGPT: “Does the following relate at all to D.E.I.? Respond factually in less than 120 characters. Begin with ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’” Projects were sometimes flagged simply because LGBTQ-related terms appeared. When asked why one military research project was targeted, Cavanaugh replied Because it explicitly says LGBTQ. The lawsuit says more than 1,400 grants totaling over $100 million were canceled.
